What are some of your 2021 culinary “resolutions?”

Question

With all the distress and upheaval related to COVID-19 this year, what, if any, resolutions are you making related to any aspect of food, cooking, etc.?

Each year I usually have an ambitious list, but I’ve streamlined it for 2021 because of COVID-19: increase patronage of local restaurants/establishments (that are still open), work on mastering techniques/dishes instead of attempting something new all the time, and reorganize my kitchen collections to improve efficiency/usability.


Please share! Wishing everyone a brighter 2021.

-AJ

Answer

So, which techniques will you be mastering further? 

I don't have any resolutions for 2021! Maybe to finally make some pasta with my new Kitchenaid attachment..

Answer

I don't make NY resolutions. That said, since last March we have been making a concerted effort to get takeout from an independent place at least once a week AND give to the city food bank monthly. I'm also donating to a few local homeless charities.

Answer

I could take my 2020 list and just paste it here...with the addition of eating out 1 - 2 times weekly when in-restaurant dining is available again. All these months of no lunches with friends have created huge pent-up yearnings for a) someone else's cooking and b) easy conversations, in person.

Pretty sure the list in 2020 (and 19 and 18...) included: Add more fruits/vegetables to our meals. Make some new cookie recipes BEFORE December, so cookie-baking for boxes goes smoothly. 

I've got a couple of Bundt cake pans and also some specialty shaped tube-bread pans that haven't been used yet, but "should" be in 2021.

Answer

I enjoy collecting and paging through cookbooks but I have too many I've never actually cooked from. So this year I'd like to cook something from each of my books, possibly weekly but likely 1-2 times per month. That's more of a personal challenge than a resolution.

Answer

My resolution is a bit in the opposite direction: I resolve to eat out ( as in "take-out" for the foreseeable future, of course) at least twice a month. I've never been much of a regular at restaurants, and since March I've probably had restaurant food once every 6-8 weeks. I need to do more to support the industry.
My issue has always been that I'm calorie-obsessed but also love to cook, so when I splurge it is usually a home-cooked extravagance. I need to lighten up a little bit and accept that age is going to determine my waistline no matter what I do, so I may as well start enjoying more prepared meals.

Answer

Happy 2021 everyone!

My culinary goal is to try to keep making and sticking to a weekly menu plan. Shopping for everything once a week, making those meals instead of pulling a package out of the freezer, and not ending up with a bunch of spoiled produce every week is a lot trickier than it sounds. And of course, timing dishes so they end up on the table at about the same time for a complete meal.

With so many people struggling, It feels pretty reprehensible to be buying food and then just throwing it in the trash.

Answer

My resolution is to use every appliance and gadget I've bought over the years at least once in 2021, and then get rid of those that I don't. The wife doesn't cook and repeatedly questions the need for each of them. We're admittedly running out of space.

Answer

A big one for me is to NOT buy fruits that are not in season, as well as fruits that are pre-bagged. I'm disgusted by the amount of money that I've wasted. :)

Answer

2020 wasn't a good one for my "resolution" of two years running -- to plan more meals around fresh vegetables, with protein as more of a side or complement to them. Two years running because I've gathered a more veggie-based recipes we like, but we live too far from markets to pick up fresh produce as often as needed to really institute it as a way of life. 

In 2020, of course, I also shopped far less frequently instead of more. And when groceries are picked up at the curb, produce selections often disappoint. 

Still it's a desirable change that we can enjoy, so that one's still on. 

In fact, now that I think of it, after 50 years together my husband recently told me he likes eggplant ("No really, I do."). I'm not sure he remembers what it tastes like and why we knew he didn't, but I'm going to resolve to discover a couple of good feature recipes for my collection (not the kind that bury the veggies in delicious goo). And if it does turn out that he's not entirely sincere, he can eat it. :)

Answer

Organize my basement "pantry" dry storage and sanitize it. We had mice move in several times in 2020 before I decided professional help was required (when it was M is for mouse week in virtual kindergarten) but I didn't want to use my stash of cleaning supplies on the pantry if mice were just going to keep coming back. So now all the new pantry items are in totes taking over my kitchen, but with kiddos distance learning and Mr Autumm's home office in the basement. . . Now I wipe things off as I bring them up from the basement, but I really need to get things re-set

Answer

I want to continue to learn to cook for one (my wife passed away a little over two years ago). Minimize waste, still make the foods I enjoy but also leave space to support my local restaurants. I also want to give away the kitchen things I don't use, I've been doing some of that one piece at a time

Answer

Catch more fish, eat more fish. 2020 was a bad year for getting out on the water.

Answer

I want to finish my memoir cookbook. I am cooking through fam recipes during late ussr times/ early modern Russia, and writing them down. Also to get better at food photography.

Answer

I have several goals for the year:
1. Organize my paper recipes. Over the years I had collected 3 binders worth, plus a small box! The binders were somewhat organized but cluttered with recipes I had never made or would never make again. So I've gone through the binders and the entire box twice, culling as much as I can, leaving only the "I've actually made this and liked this" recipes. Now I just need to organize the stuff in the box into the empty space in the binders. (bonus if I can also find these recipes online or possibly upload them myself - many were family recipes or stuff I clipped from newspapers/magazines back in the day).
2. Try a new recipe a day. I'm already at 5 on day 5 so I'm feeling good about that! My goal is 365 - not sure know how long I'll be able to keep up with this, but it will be fun to try. I won't stress about it - if we travel, I may not be able to make up those days.
3. Focus on fruit & veg and other wholesome ingredients in goal #2. Sure, I'll also bake some new cookies along the way :).

Answer

Eat

Answer

I am also not a huge fan of resolutions but I was intrigued by this piece by Genevieve Ko in NYT: If you don't have access, in a nutshell she is resolving this:

My New Year’s kitchen resolution is to follow recipes exactly as written, to get to know their creators without altering the dishes to match my own experiences or tastes.

While not a professional by any means, I very frequently throw things together using recipes as loose guidelines. Exception is when I'm trying a new to me cuisine and want to get it right. Anyway, I'm resolving to do this, sometimes.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/dining/cookbook-recipe-resolutions.html

Answer

For cooking resolutions this year:

Since the pandemic started, I've been the principle meal-maker for my mother, whose tastes are somewhat more limited than mine. I feel like I've maxxed out on the sweet spots where her palate is not threatened and my skills are actually challenged. It's a dilemma. 

The other consideration is the COVID weight gain. 

Therefore, I'm on the hunt for some high-effort/new-skill resolution-type projects that *aren't* starch-based. I can study/practice/iterate on baked goods (sweet and savory) infinitely, but there are many very good reasons not to do this.

I already know how to ferment, can and preserve many things, and in fact typically produce more of this kind of stuff than I can ever hope to actually eat.

If facilities were not an issue, I'd cure and age my own meat. And if we didn't live in a postwar suburb, I'd be raising animals for my own eggs, milk and meat instantly. But alas.

So I'm reading this discussion with interest, hoping something here will spark an idea :)

Answer

I'd like return to farmer's markets. I was a devoted farmer's market shopper for years but the pandemic closed ours here temporarily, and now the ones that have reopened have (understandably) banned customers from handling produce themselves, which is a big part of the experience for me. I decided to wait until I could pick things myself, but as I will soon be hitting a year of lackluster produce, I think I'll have to just suck it up and practice my pointing.

Another goal is to properly organize the recipes I've saved. I use and love an app called Paprika, but after maybe the first year I stopped putting things into categories, rating recipes I've tried, etc. I'd like to pick that up again.

Answer

I've been cooking for over fifty years. The pandemic hastened my plan to want less, use less, need less. I've got a kitchen equipped with the best of cookware, bakeware, cutlery, etc. I've relished using top lines in all things. Having sixteen place settings in various china and crystal, and so on.

Not any more. I'm turning to a minimalist way of living. Giving away all but what I really need to get what's done in my kitchen. I'm lucky to have a local butcher that sells prime meats, and a fishmonger that gets daily deliveries from the nearby coast. Grocers that supply good veg, cheeses, and pantry.

If you're a good cook, you really don't need all the extra.

We all need to try and enjoy our lives.

That'll do, pig. That'll do.

Answer

Trying to keep meals as simple as possible. Finding the easiest recipes on line with the least ingredients and it's working quite well, the meals tasty and seeing that less is best with it comes to less ingredients brings out the flavor of each one.

Also learning to making cocktails, so far I've had success with The Sidecar, The Lemondrop, The Pisco Sour and the easy Negroni and Gin Tonic that are all at least are drinkable.

Happy New Year to you too.

Topics

Locations

Your post has been published!

What are some of your 2021 culinary “resolutions?”

Chowhound Recommends

Food Trends

Food Trend Predictions for 2019

Discussion Summary

Recipe

A Kitchen Resolution Worth Making: Follow the Recipe Exactly

More from Chowhound

Food News

Win Game Day with These Vegetarian Party Nachos

Recipe Round-Ups

11 Ways to Gussy Up Guacamole for Game Day

Recipe Round-Ups

Quick and Easy Instant Pot Breakfast Recipes for Less Morning Stress

Entertaining

Easy Shortcuts To a (Mostly) Homemade Valentine's Day Dinner

Trending Discussions

Home Cooking Dish of the Month - VOTING, February 2021

February 2021 COTM Announcement: LIDIA BASTIANICH MONTH

Home Cooking Dish of the Month - NOMINATIONS, February 2021

What's For Dinner #447 (January 2021) - Happy New Year!

What cookbooks have you bought or do you want? Early 2021 edition!

Quick Links

Latest Discussions

Cookbook of the Month

Dish of the Month

Weekly Menu Planning

Get fresh food news delivered to your inbox

January 2021 Cookbook of the Month: VEGAN JAPANEASY & JAPANEASY

Chowhound

Policies

Community

Editorial

Content